Jonah 6

Welcome and thanks for reading. Last week we read that Jonah could have survived up to 3 weeks with-
out food and he could have survived 3 – 7 days without water inside the stomach of a large fish or whale.
Also, the seaweed in the fish’s stomach supplied enough oxygen for him to breath.

Although Jonah survived, he was not in perfect health when he was spit out of the whale. The following
verse expresses this:

Jonah 2:1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the
the Lord, and he answered me. FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE GRAVE I CALLED FOR HELP.”

FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE GRAVE means Jonah was near death. Jonah was definitely not in great health
when he was spit out of the whale’s mouth.

A final point. Some say the story of Jonah was a metaphor or parable to make a point. If this was true,
it would contradict Jesus Christ who made him a model of his resurrection in the following scripture.

Mathew 12:40 “For as Jonah, was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so shall the
Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

This tells me that Jonah and the great fish was an actual event.

Next week, we will begin our study on coincidence. Are there such things as coincidences and random
accidents or does everything happen for a reason?